Fighting With My Left Hand #2

Thought I would use my blog to document this. Been to the hospital and confused the experts even more. Everything seems to be OK that should be , but I can't grip laterally with my extended fingers of my left hand. Have an MRI scan being planned just to make sure my brain is still functioning , snd that's about it. Still can't do much with my left little finger either which makes it awkward putting gloves on and the like, but things seem to be slowly improving , although whether that's just me compensating I don't really know. I keep trying things with my left hand and then thinking .. "Could I do that with my left hand before this happened?"

It's probably diabetes related but we shall see how it progresses.

After the unfortunate derby result (well I suppose we have to let the Mackems have a little hope before they get relegated) I have Omid Djalili to look forward to this afternoon at The Stand . Only joking Sunderland folks !!

I shall keep you posted....

Omid Djalili in a Chelsea Top !!

Finding The Good

The easiest thing in the world is to find something to complain about . I once knew someone who , if the couldn't fault something or someone , would dismiss it or them as "too perfect".

So we've had the unexpected snow , but it does make you feel festive and seeing the landscape covered in white snow often make it look mmore beautiful.

Today Swansea lifted the League Cup by beating Bradford City . It was a mismatch but Bradford have disposed of Arsenal , Wigan and Aston Villa on the way to Wembley and Swansea showed Bradford what they could be one day , because not too long ago Swansea nearly lost their league status. Last year they showed a profit of nearly £15 million, and now for the first time in their 111 year history they have their name on one of the three main English Football Trophies, a shining example to other clubs.

Newcastle United disposed of Metalist Kharkiv to progress to the next round of UEFA's Europa Cup, and followed it up by defeating Southampton , and moving above Sunderland in the league. Happy days on Tyneside.

My team , Preston North End , finally ditched their old manager , appointed Simon Grayson and have had two good results against top of the table sides, so that makes me happy.

And while in all these situation success often comes at the cost of someone elses failure , the thing to remember is to enjoy your success. Although Bradford lost today , they were the first bottom tier club to reach the final since 1962 , and their bank balance will have been majorly improved by their Cup run , and they gave their fans a day at Wembley.

So essentially there have been lots of good things happening this weekend that have brought a smile to my face. As Kool & The Gang state ... "Celebrate Good Times"

The New Football Season Starts Here .... Well

..actually it started last night with Cardiff City easing past Huddersfield. Most of the media have focussed their attention on the Premier League despite this only being 20 clubs , and Sky especially doing their usually fawning brown nosing over whoever they think has money , so this season it's Manchester City , with Arsenal , Liverpool , Manchester United and the rest rest are therir to make up the numbers.

Last season they were soooo disappointed that Newcastle United did not implode as they had continued to do under Freddie Shepherd , Mike Ashley despite his continual publicity gaffs managing to get it right where it matters earning the grudging respect of most of the Newcastle fans.

After the plummetting fortunes of Preston , for the first time on Monday night Graham Westley got a standing ovation as his totally rebuilt team beat Huddersfield in the Captal One Cup.

So looking forward to another roller coaster season and who knows what may happen. Theres bound to be the odd controversy so we have to have a Half Man Half Biscuit Song to finish. Full lyrics here:

Sometimes You Never Know .....

Last season Mike Ashley sacked Chris Hughton and replaced hom with his cockney casino mate Alan Pardew . January 2011 Andy Carrol went for £35 million and who did Newcastle United get as a replacement in the next transfer window , a free transfer from West Ham.

This seemed to go from bad to worse with the sale of Jose Enrique , Kevin Nolan andeffective sacking of Joey Barton. Oh but  undersoil heating was installed on the training pitch and there was an influx of French players with exotic names.

Fans were hoping to avoid relegation and maybe get one over on the Mackems , but that was about it.

However with Tim Krul , Stephen Taylor ,  Coloccini etc Newcastle's defense looked more than competent . Midfield similarly  with Cheikh Tiote , Yohan Cabaye , and Jonas Guttierez all providing creativity and attractive football and Demba Ba scoring like theres no tomorrow.

Since January there's been the emergence of Hatem Ben Arfa and aquisition of  Papa Demba Cisse , who despite £10 million being spent on him and needing time to bed it is scoring goals at the rate of one every 70 minutes.

Newcastle United sit in fourth place three points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur who at one point were fifteen points ahead of Newcastle and played them off the park in a five nil thrashing earlier in the season, and four points ahed of a resurgent Chelsea.

Yes Mike Ashley managed to annoy everyone taking down the St James Park signs and putting up Sportsdirect Arena signs , but everybody know what it really is.

Basically the Toon are in a Pardew Wonderland with a distinct possibilty of European Football next season , who have guessed that in September?

In Defence of Mike Ashley

St James Park - It always will be

Mike Ashley is percieved by man as a fat arrogant cockney git who knows nothing about about football and is the worst think to happen to Newcastle since the architectural abberations of T-Dan Smith in the 1960s. Ashley with able help from Derek Lambias certainly manages to continually shoot himself in the foot while it's still in his mouth , and look at what has happened since he came:

• Sacking of a perfectly good manager in Sam Allardyce
• Bringing back Keegan , and having Dennis Wise as director of football , a great player but a rubbish manager (Leeds , Millwall etc)
• The debacle of trying find a manager after Keegan , resulting in JFK (Joe 'king Kinnear) and Alan Shearer
• Relegation
• The attempted sale of the club , that no one wanted to buy because of the mess Ashley had made of the place
• Chris Hughton's appointment because no one wantted the job
• The sales of Andy Carroll , Jose Enrique , Kevin Nolan , sacking Joey Barton who they could have sold for a decent return , if not a profit
• The sacking of Chris Hughton and replacement by Mike Ashley's cockney casino buddy Alan Pardew
• The attempted commercial rebranding of St James' Park - yeah the Sportsdirect Arena sounds cheap , charver and nasty

So basically with this catalogue of horrors everyone in Newcastle is wondering what the hell is coming next , after all this . I mean look at Portsmouth, Hearts  and Rangers , is Ashley any better than these owners deemed fit and proper by the English and Scottish Football Associatians?

Well really you have to look at where the club is now . Mike Ashley expressed a desire to make the club like Arsenal , to bring players through without spending a fortune and make the club a viable financial proposition. On thing Ashley can do is make money , look at Sports Direct. So where is the club now?

• After relegation , the club won the Championship under the leadership of Chris Hughton at a canter.
• In their first season in the Premiership things were going OK until the sacking of Hughton and appointment of Pardew
• This coincided with an influx of French unknowns and the sale of Andy Carrol for £35 million on the final day of the transfer window last January. Pardew was promised the money but it never seemed to materialise
• Apparently it has been invested in undersoil heating at the training ground. Have you noticed that under Ashley's stewardship Newcastle's only injuries happen on the playing field.
• The team have taken 4 points off Manchester United , and lie a comfortable fifth in the Premiership
• Demba Ba a free transfer replacement for Andy Carroll - well compare the scoring records
• Papiss Demba Cisse the biggest buy under Pardew at £10 million scored the winner on his home debut
• Hatem Ben Arfa , Yohan Cabaye, Tim Krul have all progressed under Ashley's overall stewardship
• Apparently the naming rights for the stadium would pay for Cisse , whether that's right or wrong is another question

Basically the thing is the club is in an apparently better state under Asley that I can ever remember . John Hall's stewardship with hindsight could only ever have been temporary , but if at the start of the season you'd have said Newcastle could have a good shot at European football next season , I think you would have got a few laughs.

Basically Ashley is doing more right than wrong , and expect more gaffes , but beware of getting rid because there's not that many decent club owners out there